Wormtown is champion of microbreweries

Wormtown co-owners David Fields, right, and Ben Roesch, who is also the brewmaster, discuss their new brewery under construction at 72 Shrewsbury St., Worcester. The room behind them will eventually hold the brewing equipment. (JOHN FERRARONE)

WORCESTER — Wormtown Brewery, currently located at 455 Park Ave., was named Grand National Champion at this year's U.S. Open Beer Championship in Atlanta on July 4.

The U.S. Open Beer Championship pits breweries from all over the world against one another in a variety of categories.The competition began in 2009 and is judged by a selection of international beer experts. The contest has more than 3,000 entries, from major brewers to microbreweries like Wormtown.

In addition, Wormtown Brewery was awarded three gold medals and one silver medal.

"To get three gold, a silver, and to be national champion is way more than we ever expected or dared to say or think," said Ben Roesch, a master brewer and co-owner of Wormtown Brewery. "Even cracking the top 10 was an unuttered personal goal."

The brewery received gold in the Imperial IPA (India Pale Ale) category with its Hopulence IPA; the American IPA category with its Be Hoppier IPA; and the French/Belgian Ale category with its Biere de Miele. The silver medal was awarded in the French/Belgian Saison category for Wormtown's ALS Farmhouse Fundraiser Ale. One dollar from each Farmhouse Fundraiser Ale is donated to amyorophic lateral sclerosis research.

Wormtown released its first beer back in March 2010 and has remained the only Worcester brewery. What makes its victory even sweeter is that every beer has a Massachusetts ingredient. Brewers were the first customers at the first malt house on the East Coast, Valley Malt in Hadley.

"When you talk about the beers that we won those medals with, those had ingredients grown here in Massachusetts," said Mr. Roesch.

He has a long history within the brewing industry. He developed a taste for craft beer during his time at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he earned a degree in forestry. Following graduation, he worked part time at West Boylston's Homebrew Emporium while he also brewed at home. During this time, he was told by a friend about a part-time assistant brewer position at Cambridge Brewing Co., and he made the decision to pursue a career as a brewer.

"Here was an opportunity to do it Old World style," recalled Mr. Roesch. "You can be an assistant brewer — almost an apprentice — working long hours for low pay, but learning a lot about brewing. If you find you still have a passion for it, you can move up."

Following his time at Cambridge Brewing Co., he went on to work full time at Wachusett Brewery and then Nashoba Valley Winery, where he was in charge of the brewery.

This event marked Wormtown's second year of U.S. Open Beer Championship, the brewery won two bronze medals and one silver in last year's event. In addition to being a highly coveted badge of honor, the competition serves as a way for Wormtown to gain valuable information about their beer and they do not craft beer specifically for the event.

"One of the benefits of doing these competitions is getting the feedback from the judges, that helps us," Mr. Roesch explained. "We have a perception of our beer and the flavor profile of a certain style and how we want to interpret it, and there is the public perception that we can get from talking to people at the bar. Getting the judges' feedback in the technical aspects is very helpful."

The brewery is in a tiny 1,500-square-foot location, a former ice cream shop next to Peppercorn's restaurant on Park Avenue. But it will soon be moving to a much larger space of 10,000 square feet at 72 Shrewsbury St.

The new site will jump the brewery up from a 10- to a 30-barrel brewhouse, which equals three times the output for the company and its seven employees. In addition to the production area, the new location will feature a tasting room. While there are no hard dates for the opening, Wormtown plans to be commercially brewing out of the new location in September and open to the public by early October.

"We need it," said Mr. Roesch. "With all of the kegs and everything, it's hard to find the space to even do the work you need to do."

The company had attempted a move to a 7,500 square foot space at Union Station, where it could lease brewing equipment purchased by the city; however, the $400,000 price tag for the brewing equipment proved to be too high, and City Council voted down the project.

"In the end, they just decided that the project didn't work for the space they had there," said Mr. Roesch.

Now that Wormtown will be outfitting its Shrewsbury Street location, the brewers will have plenty of time to focus on doing what they do best: Brewing. Mr. Roesch said they have no plans to change their course of action in order to capture more titles.

"We're definitely going to try and defend the crown," he said. "But I can't say we are going to do anything different or try and prepare ourselves. We'll keep on making the best beer with the best ingredients that we know how to and I know all the other breweries out there are going to be doing the same thing. We'll meet in the competition and see what happens."